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Pennsylvania Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published its April 2021 newsletter.

Included in this month’s edition are articles about:

The impact of the American Rescue Plan on health insurance eligibility.
The impact of the American Rescue Plan on “Pennie,” Pennsylvania’s health insurance marketplace.
Federal updates on nursing home visitation.
Medicare coverage of COVID-19 testing and vaccines.
Using the Medical Assistance Transportation program to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Advancing maternal health care coverage in Pennsylvania.

Read about these subjects and more in the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s April 2021 newsletter.

PA Safety Net Admin2021-05-06T11:13:13+00:00May 6th, 2021|Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid coronavirus, Pennsylvania Medicaid COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Medicaid Enrollment Up in PA

Medicaid enrollment in Pennsylvania has risen 13.7 percent in the past year, according to the state’s Department of Human Services, which administers the program.

Nearly 400,000 people have joined Pennsylvania’s Medicaid rolls in the past year, raising the total number of participants to 3.2 million.

Participation in the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cash assistance program, and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) have risen as well during the past year.

PA Safety Net Admin2021-04-07T06:00:11+00:00April 7th, 2021|Pennsylvania Medicaid|Comments Off

Change Atop PA’s Department of Human Services

Teresa Miller is out and Meg Snead will be in as Pennsylvania’s new Secretary of the Department of Human Services.

In separate news releases the Wolf administration announced that Miller, who has led DHS since 2015, “will be moving on to a new opportunity outside Pennsylvania” and leave her job at the end of April and that she will be replaced by Meg Snead, who currently serves as the governor’s Secretary of Policy and Planning.

Snead’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

The Secretary of the Department of Human Services is important to SNAP members and Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because the state’s Medicaid program is administered by that department’s Office of Medical Assistance Programs.

Learn more about Miller’s departure here and about Snead’s nomination here.

PA Safety Net Admin2021-03-25T06:00:37+00:00March 25th, 2021|Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

COVID Drives Major Increase in PA Medicaid Enrollment

Medicaid enrollment in Pennsylvania has risen nearly 14 percent in the past year as rising unemployment resulting from COVID-19 drives people to turn to the state for health insurance.

As a result, Pennsylvania has added nearly 400,000 people to its Medicaid rolls in the past year. Today, 3.2 million Pennsylvanians are enrolled in the state’s program, although among them are approximately 250,000 who would have been dropped from the program except for a federal requirement that the state not drop people from the program in exchange for a major increase in federal aid for the state’s program.

As a result of the increase, the state’s Department of Human Services, which runs its Medicaid program, has asked the legislature for nearly $1 billion in supplemental funding to help finance its services for this expanded enrollment through the rest of the state’s FY 2021 year.

Learn more about the past year’s increase in Medicaid enrollment, who the new enrollees are, and how the state is accommodating them in the Philadelphia Inquirer article “A huge spike in Medicaid enrollment in Pa. shows how devastating the coronavirus has been.”

PA Safety Net Admin2021-03-24T06:00:57+00:00March 24th, 2021|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid coronavirus, Pennsylvania Medicaid COVID-19|Comments Off

Pennsylvania Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published its February 2021 newsletter.

Included in this month’s edition are articles about:

the continuation of certain Medicaid protections, including continuous coverage, during the COVID-19 emergency;
COVID-19 vaccinations and state reimbursement for those vaccines;
the availability of Medicaid-covered remote and in-home adult daily living services;
Medicaid services for individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 who have chronic disabilities;
a new monthly webinar that will be offered by the state’s Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; and
Pennsylvania’s selection of a vendor to operate its Resource Information and Services Enterprise (RISE-PA), the state’s planned resource and referral tool.

Read about these subjects and more in the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s February 2021 newsletter.

PA Safety Net Admin2021-03-05T06:00:34+00:00March 5th, 2021|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

GAO: CMS Should Pay More Attention to States’ Financing of Medicaid

The federal government does not adequately monitor how states finance their Medicaid programs.

It also lacks a sufficiently clear understanding of how they pay providers of Medicaid-covered services.

These are among the conclusions in a new study on Medicaid financing and payments by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

According to the GAO report,

GAO estimated that states’ reliance on provider taxes and local government funds decreased states’ share of net Medicaid payments (total state and federal payments) and effectively increased the federal share of net Medicaid payments by 5 percentage points in state fiscal year 2018. It also resulted in smaller net payments to some providers after the taxes and local government funds they contribute to their payments are taken into account. While net payments are smaller, the federal government’s contribution does not change. This effectively shifts responsibility for a larger portion of Medicaid payments to the federal government and away from states.

To address this challenge, the GAO urged CMS to collect more complete and consistent information about both state financing of their Medicaid programs and the manner in which states pay Medicaid providers. CMS neither agreed nor disagreed with the GAO’s recommendation.

Such a study could have implications for Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because of the state’s growing dependence on provider taxes to fund its Medicaid programs in recent years.

Learn more about what the GAO found and recommended in its new report “Medicaid: CMS Needs More Information on States’ Financing and Payment Arrangements to Improve Oversight.”

PA Safety Net Admin2020-12-15T06:00:16+00:00December 15th, 2020|Federal Medicaid issues, Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

SNAP Asks PA Delegation for COVID-19 Aid

SNAP has written to Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to request additional COVID-19 legislation between now and the end of the year to help Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals respond to the health care and financial challenges posed by the pandemic.

In its letter, SNAP asked Congress for:

additional funding for the Provider Relief Fund for assistance to hospitals;
extension of the temporary moratorium on continued implementation of the 2011 Budget Control Act’s Medicare sequestration; and
the suspension of any other federal cuts for health care providers, such as the scheduled reduction of Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allocations to the states.

Read SNAP’s message to Congress.

PA Safety Net Admin2020-12-08T06:00:24+00:00December 8th, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, DSH hospitals, Federal Medicaid issues, Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

PA Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published its November 2020 newsletter Health Law News.

Included in this month’s edition are articles about:

How the renewal of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency declaration extends key Medicaid protections.
State planning for children with complex needs.
State efforts to connect people to COVID-19 testing and care.
An upcoming webinar about challenging Medicaid and Community HealthChoices waiver service denials.

Read about these subjects and more in the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s November 2020 newsletter.

PA Safety Net Admin2020-11-17T15:00:32+00:00November 4th, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published its September 2020 newsletter Health Law News.

Included in this month’s edition are articles about:

How Pennsylvania Medicaid beneficiaries who turn 21 during the COVID-19 emergency remain eligible for EPSDT services.
Pennsylvania Health Law Project navigators who can help direct people to COVID-19 testing and treatment.
A warning that without increased federal Medicaid matching money, states may seek to reduce Medicaid provider payments, increase beneficiary cost-sharing, or reduce services.

Read about these subjects and more in the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s September 2020 newsletter.

PA Safety Net Admin2020-10-08T06:00:21+00:00October 8th, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pennsylvania Medicaid|Comments Off

Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Rising in Pandemic

Medicaid enrollment rose 6.2 percent and CHIP enrollment 0.5 percent during the first four months of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports.

The enrollment increase can be traced to rising unemployment, with many people losing their employer-sponsored health insurance. The new figures cover five months, from February through June, the latter four of which marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals already serve significant numbers of Medicaid and CHIP patients; an increase in their rolls will prove financially challenging to them.

The information comes from CMS’s first monthly “Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Trends Snapshot.” Go here for CMS’s news release explaining its new initiative and here to see the trends snapshot itself, which includes figures for Pennsylvania.

PA Safety Net Admin2020-10-06T06:00:16+00:00October 6th, 2020|Pennsylvania Medicaid, Uncategorized|Comments Off

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